New Mad Cow Test on the Horizon?

pin_gween writes "Prions are thought to be responsible for mad cow disease and its human variant, Creutzfeld-Jakob disease. Until now, the only way to positively ID those infected was to dissect the brain. Canada.com has an AP wire reporting that researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have 'developed a method of multiplying the number prions in a blood sample so a blood test then can detect them.' If perfected, it would make the blood supply safer; transfusions can spread the disease between people. It could also open up more blood donations for the Red Cross: in the U.S., people who have spent more than 3 months total (since 1980) in the UK or 6 months total (since 1980) in Europe are banned from donating."

Comments

Donation

[seti]

In Belgium, I am banned from donating blood because i was born in 1978, and lived in the UK till 1980. I left the UK when I was two years old.

Re:Donation

[packeteer]

I don't want to scare you since you are probably fine but you very well could have prions in you. Temember there is no way to test and just becuase you have no symptoms doesn;t mean you dont have it. You can be exposed to the prions that cause VCJD and not get sick for 30-40 years.

I know someone who is not allowed to donate blood in the USA. He has never been to europe. His grandfather died of CJD and contracted it in the United States. Becuase there is a possability he carried it when he has children and his grandchildren COULD have it. There is no way to test them. The only way they will know is when they get older they could get sick.

Re:Donation

[FidelCatsro]

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs180/en /
About 132 deaths over a 6 year period(not all are definite) , you have a far greater chance of the beef itself killing you by being stuck in your throat, slipping on a bit you spilled on the floor ,contracting nasty food poisoning or a bowel obstruction

Re:Donation

[wbtittle]

Sorry, you fail.

Pop quiz buddy. You are about to die. You need blood. You have a choice. DIE, or take the blood of a person who might, maybe, possibly, if 7,000,000,000 things went just right have a stray prion in his system, which might just might transfer to you and then 25 years from now cause you to die of nvCJD.

What do you choose. Death today, or death 25 years from now.

The policy is stupid. It kills people. The blood supply is severely strained as a result.

The definition of a rare blood type is not AB-, it is the type of blood you need when you need it and it is not there.

Less than 200 people have died of nvCJD in the world in the last 30 years.

Anyone worried about catching it and dying may as well shoot themselves right now, cause they are also worried to death about getting every other disease on the planet except for the ones that might actually kill them (like the flu).

GRRRR

Alternative test

[Boomshanka]

will it determine if the woman I am about to marry will turn into a mad cow down the track.... now that would truely be a useful test.

To be fair

[MillionthMonkey]

Prions can also be spread via cannibalism- although cannibals can rest assured that as far as prions are concerned, eating brains is still much, much safer than receiving transfusions.

Blood test since 2003

[polysylabic psudonym]

According to New Scientist magazine there's been a blood test for BSE (Bovive Spongiform Encephalopathy(Mad Cow Disease)) since 2003. The more tests out there the better, of course. Better tests mean quicker testing, means more US cattle tested, means fewer cases hiding, means fewer cases of vCJD in american humans.

heard this on the TV a while ago...

[IchBinEinPenguin]

cow1: Do you worry about mad cow disease?
cow2: Why should I? I'm a rabbit.

I hope they don't expect a lot more donors

[wizrd_nml]

in the US, people who have spent more than 3 months total (since 1980) in the UK or 6 months total (since 1980) in Europe are banned from donating.

So with over 80% of Americans not even having a passport, is that really a problem?

Re:I hope they don't expect a lot more donors

[Mccavity91k]

We do not reject people that have taken Tylenol, unless they're donating platelets (Tylenol, like asprin, is a blood thinner). As far as the drugs go, it is on a case by case basis because some drugs change your blood in many ways. As far as the Benadryl goes, the place I worked at would not have deferred you for that, as long as the allergies were chronic, and not possible a cold or flu.

Remember, this blood will go to sick or injured people that aren't in the right shape to have to worry about what drugs or viruses are in their bloodstreams, and how they'll react with what they're already on.

cost and time

[silverkniveshotmail.]

i didn't notice the article mention once how long it would take to get results, or how much it would cost.

Tough work

[pedestrian crossing]

I have a friend who worked in a lab that was trying to develop a test for MCD, and my hat goes off to the people who do this kind of work.

Since so little is known about the exact infection process, known infected brain samples have to be handled -very- carefully. Working in a high-level biohazard environment is not easy, and is very stressful.

Banned

[dcw3]

I'm an American who lived in Europe for six years. From the time I returned to the US, until the ban was enacted, I was able to donate blood on a regular basis. I was surprised, when I was filling out the standard donation questioneer, to find that they had changed the rules, and I was suddenly unable to donate. Does this really make any sense at all? Are Europeans not donating blood? Has there been a single documented case of someone contracting Mad Cow through a blood donation? If so, are the risks of getting it worse than those of not having an adequate blood supply?

eat steak eat steak

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw this on the news today at the end of their headlines, they then switched to a commercial without flashing a logo or any pause. The commercial started with a little song "eat steak, eat steak..."
Not sure if that was intentional or not but it was a bit disturbing.

Donation Bans: Poster is Wrong

[Kevin Nichols]

The poster is wrong in stating that anyone who has lived 6 months or more in Europe cannot give blood. It's not actually that strict. The full details are here: RC Donor Eligibility.

Re:Donation Bans: Poster is Wrong

[oneiros27]

It used to be. They've relaxed it recently. (I know, because I was trying to figure out why there was the ban, as I'm in the group banned, and freaked me out even more when the relaxed the rules, but I was still in the banned group.)

Here's the notice they've been sending out whenever we have a blood drive at work:

Effective March 1, 2005, the American Red Cross has significantly changed the restrictions for deferral of donors who have traveled to various parts of the world. Previously, the restrictions were 3 months total from 1980 to 1996 in the UK and 6 months total for the UK and Europe.

Now, the criteria is as follows for deferral:

Since January 1, 1980 through December 31, 1996-

• Spent a total time that adds up to 3 months or more in any country in the United Kingdom.
• Were a member of the U.S. military, a civilian military employee, or a dependent of a member of the US Military that spent a total of 6 months on or associated with a military base in any of the following areas during the specified time frames-
  • From 1980 through 1990-Belgium, the Netherlands (Holland), or Germany
  • From 1980 thorough 1996-Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Italy or Greece

Since January 1, 1980 to present-

Spent a total time that adds up to 5 years or more in Europe (includes time spent n the UK from 1980 through 1996 and time associated with the military bases in Europe as outlined above)

The rest of the deferral requirements remain the same.

From the research I did, there were suggestions that military folks were likely to visit the UK -- I couldn't find anything that suggested that have reason to believe that there was tainted meat on the bases.

Re:Mad Cow and CFD is a hype - it is safe.

[Grym]

"The facts are..."

"+1 interesting" as it may be, from that point on the parent was utterly wrong.

Some definitions: TSE is the general name of the TYPE of disease. Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis (BSE), or "Mad Cow's Disease", is the specific name of the disease as it appears in bovine, or cows. Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD) disease is the specific name of the disease at it appears in people.

Some common points of confusion:

• There are multiple forms of CJD, dependent upon how it is contracted
• cCJD, or Classical CJD is a genetic form
• In cCJD, YOUR BODY produces the malfolded protein (prion) which causes the disease. This is rare and ONLY manifests itself in the elderly (>55). It is a rare genetic defect (about 1:1 million) that causes this.
• nCJD (or sometimes nvCJD) is the acquired form of the disease. It can be acquired from contact with any infected bodily fluid and, of course, meat. It can affect anyone of any age.
• A person can get nCJD by contact with a cow with BSE OR a person with cCJD. This is why they aren't allowing blood transfusions of possibly infected people.
• All people are susceptible to the disease. It's simply a matter of contracting the disease. This is difficult to do if you: 1. Don't practice cannibalism (prevent contact to CJD) 2. Slaughter cows without coming into contact with the brain or spine (prevent contact to BSE) and 3. Prevent contact with an infected patient's spinal fluid (this really only applies to healthcare professionals, but it's fundamentally no different from #1)

-Grym